As of this writing, American athletes have won 12 medals in the Winter Olympics being held in South Korea. We, however, believe our daughter, Tricia Rose, should get a gold medal for Olympian travel.

She flew from Los Angeles to Green Bay by way of San Francisco and Minneapolis, then drove up from Green Bay to Ellison Bay as a gift for her Mom’s birthday and spent 30 wonderful hours with us before heading back to L.A. in time to see her son, Drew Hacker, and his new wife, Caili Jordan (“CJ”), who were flying into California for the weekend from North Carolina — a feat of Olympic proportions for which we will be forever grateful.

Down and out

We regret to report that the bathroom facility behind the Century Farm barn atop the Ellison Bay bluff will be out of commission for an indefinite period. When carrying out the presidential flag-lowering order last Monday, we discovered that Sunday night’s gale-force winds from the north had blown over the outhouse located there.

Thanks for road conditions

Since we live way back in the woods off an unpaved, private road in Ellison Bay, we are up close and personally familiar with icy, snowy driving conditions. And we are always relieved when (and if) we’re able to make it out to the “main” roads.

So, we know we speak for all when we say “Thank you so much” to our local, county and state snow and ice control personnel for their Herculean efforts (often before we even wake up in the morning) to keep our area roads relatively safe.